AS HEALTH INFORMATION management (HIM) professionals increasingly undertake information governance (IG)
initiatives in their organizations, there has been an acknowledgment that other organizations learn by example. Adoption
of IG is a journey that requires hard work, cross-functional
collaboration, and strategic decisions. That’s why Iron Mountain launched its first annual “IGgy Awards” to recognize the
progress organizations have made along the path to adoption.
The inaugural IGgy awards were presented at the 2017 AHIMA
Annual Convention in Los Angeles, CA.

There are five IGgy Award categories, including: Early
Adopter, Strategically Organizing for Governance, Advancing Data Integrity and Classification, Developing a Sustainable and Enforceable Retention Policy, and Elevating the Bar
for the Enterprise.

Through categories such as the Early Adopter award (which
recognizes organizations and practitioners ahead of the IG
curve) and the Elevating the Bar for the Enterprise award
(whose vision and goals have raised the bar for their industry
and peers), the IGgy awards demonstrate that IG is not an overnight initiative. The importance of identifying early successes
and victories throughout the IG adoption process is part of the
inspiration for the IGgy awards.

This year’s IGgy awards went to five organizations that are
leading the way in IG and showing their peers and colleagues
what it looks like, on a practical level, to make significant
progress through sound IG practices.

Early Adopter IGgy

The Early Adopter IGgy award recognizes organizations thatembraced the concept of information governance early, takingthe critical first steps required to initiate IG well in advance oftheir industry and peers.

The 2017 Early Adopter IGgy was awarded to Cindy Zak, MS,
RHIA, PMP, FAHIMA, executive director, corporate business
services at Yale New Haven Health System. As an early adopter of IG, Cindy Zak and the team atYale New Haven Hospital
(YNHH) understood the value of conducting an internal assessment of records information management practices and
policies. In 2014, YNHH partnered with a vendor to execute
an enterprise-wide survey that documented current records
information management practices, identified areas of opportunity, and provided a roadmap to standardize practices. Taking those initial steps enabled the organization to apply and
enforce policies consistently across multiple facilities as well
as forecast significant savings for their organization over the
next five years.

Strategically Organizing for Governance IGgy

The Strategically Organizing for Governance IGgy award rec-ognizes organizations that purposefully plan for informationgovernance and conduct the initial diligence required to de-velop a sound framework to build upon and efficiently executeagainst as their IG initiative scales. Understanding that information governance is a complexprocess, 2017 award winner Lori Jayne, RHIA, CHPS, seniordirector of HIM, MaineHealth, and her team initiated a stra-tegic survey that would prove instrumental in uncovering op-portunities to optimize information management processesacross a network of 11 hospitals. Through strategic partner-ships, Jayne gathered the insights necessary to advance IGand secure the buy-in required to standardize information